Read Ebook: Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa by Speck Frank G Frank Gouldsmith

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mavit anus ejus. "You can cry all you want to. I'll punish you," said Nenebuc, ano suo strepitum urendi faciente. He didn't feel the burns then. Then he started walking.

Next day he felt a little sick and anus ejus scabi osus fuit. In walking he got turned around and saw his own tracks. "Somebody's passed here," he said to himself, when he saw them. Then he saw some kind of meat lying on the ground, and he tasted it. "Somebody had some meat here," he said. Then the little bird Gitci??gi?`tci?gane`c?c cried out, "Nenebuc scabies suas edit!" "Oh no, those are not my scabs. Some old woman passed by and left some dry meat," said he. But at last he discovered se scabies suas edisse, but even then he didn't care. He kept on walking and felt very sick.

Then Nenebuc went to a high bluff near by. He was tired, sick, and hungry, and he lay upon the bluff sleeping. Partridge came home and said to his young when he saw what Nenebuc had done to them, "Who did this?" "A man came along and asked us our name and, when we told him 'K?cku?ge?s?i,' super nos defaecavit. He said he wasn't frightened by us." And so the young Partridges told their father where Nenebuc had gone. The old Partridge followed his tracks until he came to where Nenebuc lay on the cliff. He saw him lying right on the edge, so he walked up slowly to him and then suddenly buzzed his wings, and Nenebuc jumped up and fell over the cliff. As he slid down, anum suum in lapidibus scabit and all the scabs rubbed off. As he lay on the ground he saw the scabs and said, "These Indians will call this wa??kw?n? and when they go hungry they can make soup for themselves, these Ojibwa, forever." Then he was cured.

Nenebuc Prepares a Feast and Gets Caught Between Two Trees, While the Animals Receive a Distribution of Fat.

After this Nenebuc began travelling again. One time he feasted a lot of animals. He had killed a big bear, which was very fat and he began cooking it, having made a fire with his bow-drill. When he was ready to spread his meat, he heard two trees scraping together, swayed by the wind. He didn't like this noise while he was having his feast and he thought he could stop it. He climbed up one of the trees and when he reached the spot where the two trees were scraping, his foot got caught in a crack between the trees and he could not free himself.

When the first animal guest came along and saw Nenebuc in the tree, he, the Beaver, said "Come on to the feast, Nenebuc is caught and can't stop us." And then the other animals came. The Beaver jumped into the grease and ate it, and the Otter did the same, and that is why they are so fat in the belly. The Beaver scooped up the grease and smeared it on himself, and that is the reason why he is so fat now. All the small animals came and got fat for themselves. Last of all the animals came the Rabbit, when nearly all the grease was gone--only a little left. So he put some on the nape of his neck and some on his groin and for this reason he has only a little fat in those places. So all the animals got their fat except Rabbit. Then they all went, and poor Nenebuc got free at last. He looked around and found a bear's skull that was all cleaned except for the brain, and there was only a little of that left, but he couldn't get at it. Then he wished himself to be changed into an ant in order to get into the skull and get enough to eat, for there was only about an ant's meal left.

Nenebuc Gets Caught in the Bear's Skull.

Then he became an ant and entered the skull. When he had enough he turned back into a man, but he had his head inside the skull; this allowed him to walk but not to see. On account of this he had no idea where he was. Then he felt the trees. He said to one, "What are you?" It answered, "Cedar." He kept doing this with all the trees in order to keep his course. When he got too near the shore, he knew it by the kind of trees he met. So he kept on walking and the only tree that did not answer promptly was the black spruce, and that said, "I'm Se??se?ga`nd?k" . Then Nenebuc knew he was on low ground. He came to a lake, but he did not know how large it was, as he couldn't see. He started to swim across. An Ojibwa was paddling on the lake with his family and he heard someone calling, "Hey! There's a bear swimming across the lake." Nenebuc became frightened at this and the Ojibwa then said, "He's getting near the shore now." So Nenebuc swam faster, and as he could understand the Ojibwa language, he guided himself by the cries. He landed on a smooth rock, slipped and broke the bear's skull, which fell off his head. Then the Ojibwa cried out, "That's no bear! That's Nenebuc!" Nenebuc was all right, now that he could see, so he ran off, as he didn't want to stay with these people.

Nenebuc Wounds the Giant Lynx, Disguises Himself in a Toad's Skin, and Finally Slays Her.

He had his bow and arrow with him, and as he went along he saw a great snake. He shot it with his arrow. He came to a big lake with a nice, sandy shore, where he saw Lions . He couldn't shoot them with his arrow as they were too far away, nor was there any place where he could hide himself until they came to sun themselves by the shore, when they felt too cold in the water. Finally he hit upon a plan. He took some birch bark from a rotten stump, rolled it into a hollow cylinder, and placed it, like a wigwam, near the shore. He got inside and made a little hole in the bark through which to shoot and kill the Lions.

When the Lions saw the thing on the beach, they grew curious to find out what this strange thing was on the beach that was not there the day before. So they sent a big snake to twist around it and to try to upset it, but the snake did not succeed in doing this, for Nenebuc stood too firm. So the Lions came ashore upon the sand and Nenebuc shot one of them with his arrow--a she-lion, the wife of the Lion chief. He did not kill her, but wounded her badly in the side, and the flint arrow point stayed in the wound. She was very badly wounded and went back to a hole which led to a cave in a big rock where she lived. Nenebuc was sorry that he had not killed the Lion queen.

As he went along the shore, the next morning, he heard someone singing and shaking a rattle. Nenebuc stood there wondering and waiting, and pretty soon he saw an old woman making the song. So he went across to see her, and when they met, he asked her, "What are you doing?" "I'm a doctor," she answered. "The queen of the Lions has been shot by Nenebuc and I am going to cure her." She didn't know that it was Nenebuc to whom she was talking, for she was too old. So Nenebuc told her, "Let me hear you singing. Is that what you are going to do to cure her?" "Yes, I will sing and then pull out that arrow." The Lions had sent for her at the foot of the lake to cure the queen. Nenebuc picked up a club and killed her, saying, "You are no doctor at all." Then he discovered that she was no person at all, but a big toad . So he skinned her and put on the skin. The skin had a hole in the groin, and as he had no needle to sew it up with, his scrotum hung out when he put it on himself. This did not worry Nenebuc, for he thought, "It will be all right, unless they notice me too closely." So he walked past the cave in which the Lions lived and kept singing and rattling all the time.

When the young lions heard him, they said, "There's the old medicine woman coming." They were very glad to think that their mother would be cured. So they opened the door in the rock and Nenebuc went in, and one of the daughters came to meet him and said, "Come in, old woman." They were very much pleased. Nenebuc said, "Don't shut the doors. Leave them open, as the queen needs plenty of fresh air!" Then he said, "I'm hungry. I've had a long walk and I'm tired." Then they gave him a good meal first. While he was eating, he sat with open legs and the children cried out, "Look at the old woman with testicles hanging out!" But the older ones told them to be silent, as they thought some old women had testicles.

When he had finished eating, Nenebuc said, "Don't watch me. I'm going to pull out the arrow point. You will hear her suffering and me singing, but don't look until you hear her stop suffering. Then she will be cured, and the arrow point will be out. So don't look, for I am going to cure her." Then he began rattling and singing, and, as he did so, he shoved the arrow point farther into the wound of the queen in order to kill her. When she yelled, her people thought that the hurt was caused in pulling it out. At last one of the little lion children peeped and saw Nenebuc pushing the arrow farther in. He told his sister, "That's Nenebuc himself inside!" Then Nenebuc ran outside and the Queen Lion was dying. Nenebuc had difficulty to clear himself. He pulled off the toad skin and tried to climb up the rock.

The Giant Lynx Causes the World Flood and Gathers the Animals on a Raft; Muskrat Dives for Earth, which Nenebuc Transforms into a New World.

As soon as the queen died, a giant stream poured out of the cave and the lake began rising. "That is going to flood the world and be the end," said Nenebuc. So he cut trees and made a kind of raft. So he had his raft ready, and the end of the world came. He couldn't see any trees, water covered everything, and he made the flood. He saw all kinds of animals swimming toward his raft and he took them on. "Come on, come on," he cried, "and stay here." For he wanted to save them, so that after the flood there would be all kinds of animals. The animals stayed on the raft with him for a long while. Some time after this he made a rope of roots and tied it to the Beaver's tail, telling him to dive and to try and reach the land underneath. He knew the water would get lower afterwards. The Beaver couldn't reach the land and he came up to the surface of the water again.

Nenebuc Sends Crow Out, for Disobedience Changes Him Black and Gull Partly Black, then Retires to the West, until He Will Return Again.

Nenebuc knew the world was round like a ball, but he didn't know how large it was. He was sitting down, tired. So he said to Crow, "Go fly around the world and don't eat until you come back again. If you do, we will know it." Crow at that time was white. Crow had to do as he was told, because Nenebuc was chief of all men and animals. So Crow started and flew and flew along the salt water beach. Soon he became very hungry and wondered how far he was away from Nenebuc. One morning he was flying along the shore and he saw an old dead fish. He was so hungry that he tasted a little bit of it, and finally made a meal of it. When he finished eating, he found he had turned black. This is the way Crow became black.

When Crow reached the place from which he started out, he found Nenebuc and all the animals waiting for him. He told Nenebuc that he had eaten, and then Nenebuc said to Gull, "You go try. Do the same and don't eat until you come here." So Gull went. When he got to the same place at which Crow had felt hungry, Gull felt hungry. One morning he saw the same dead fish. He thought, "Well, I mustn't eat it, for if I do, I'll be as black as Crow." He took one mouthful and started flying. When Gull returned, Nenebuc could see a little black on his wings, so he said, "Gull has had a mouthful too."

Then he told Owl, "You go and try to go around the world this time. If you eat, you won't change colour but remain the same colour as you are now. But if you eat, you won't come back here." So Owl started flying. He came to the same lake, saw the dead fish and finished it. He ate a good meal and never returned. But he didn't change colour.

Then Nenebuc let all the animals go from the raft. He started west and is there yet, lying on his back, singing and hammering at his wigwam poles, in place of drumming, all the time. He will stay there until he gets up again three years before the end of the world, when he will travel all over the world to see the animals and the Ojibwa again. He will not die until the end of the world.

Nenebuc Fragment.

Once the Goose met Nenebuc and gave him two wings. He told him that if he flapped them he could fly with them, but that he must not look downwards while he flew. So Nenebuc took the wings and began flying. When he got very far up, he wondered how high he was and looked down. Then he tumbled down and down until he fell into a big hollow stump where he couldn't get out. Soon two girls came along with an axe to get some wood and began cutting at the hollow pine in which Nenebuc was. They cut a hole and Nenebuc kept quiet, for he was hoping they would free him. When they looked in the hole, they saw his belly and they pulled out a hair. They went back to camp and told their father, "Here is a porcupine quill we found in a tree." The old man looked at it and, laughing, said, "That's not a porcupine quill, that's a hair from Nenebuc's groin!"

Nenebuc Transforms the Bear.

Nenebuc in his tracks encountered the great Bear that killed and ate the Indians--so many of them that they feared they would all be killed. So Nenebuc went to the Bear and said, "You are eating so many of the Indians that they will all be gone soon. Now I am going to make you small and harmless." Then he made him into the Squirrel and turned the Squirrel into the Bear, and the Bear, now in Squirrel's shape, felt so badly that he cried until his eyebrows turned grey. That is the reason why to this day squirrels have grey eyelids.

"Now," said Nenebuc, "what will you eat?" The Bear, now a Squirrel, said he would continue to eat people, but he was so small that he could not do anything. "That is good," said Nenebuc. "Now you can't do any harm to the Indians. But you had better change your food. Just run up that black-spruce tree and taste the acorn seeds and then see whether you want to eat people any more. You are too small to eat people as you used to do." So the Squirrel ran up the black-spruce tree and tasted the sweet seed of the cone. He liked it so well, it tasted so sweet, that he chose this for his food and said that he would not want anything better any more. That is his food to-day.

Wemicus.

One day Wemicus said to his wife, "We are all very hungry. I might go and see one of our sons-in-law; he might have some food." Next morning he started out. Wemicus always tried to imitate the actions of everybody he saw. When he reached the home of his son-in-law Ninicip he saw that he also had a large family. Ninicip was inside of his wigwam, and when he saw Wemicus coming, he told his wife, "You had better begin to get ready for company and boil water in the stone pail." Then he jumped up upon the cross poles in his wigwam and in vas lapidum sub se defaecavit, telling his wife to stir up the contents of the pot. Wemicus apparently saw nothing of this. Then one of the children of Ninicip took spoons and, dipping them in the pot, said, "Soup, soup, soup, rice soup." Wemicus tasted the soup, thought it tasted good, and decided that after this he would make soup in the same manner.

The next morning, when Wemicus started for home, he was given some rice soup to take home to his children. Before leaving the wigwam of Ninicip, however, Wemicus had purposely left behind one of his mittens. One of the children saw the mitten and Ninicip's wife sent the child to return it, bidding him not to go too close to Wemicus but to throw him the mitten. The child did the bidding of his mother and, when the mitten was thrown to Wemicus, he said, "Ask your father to come and see me," and he named a certain day. On the way back home Wemicus thought, "I wonder what this soup tastes like when it is cold. I must try it. My children don't need any of it, so I might as well eat it all." So he ate all of the soup. When he reached his wigwam he said, "Ninicip and his family are starving also. To-morrow he will come to see us and perhaps he will bring us something. We had better fix up our wigwam." Then they fixed up the wigwam in the same manner as that of Ninicip. The next day Ninicip came and they gave him the best place. Wemicus said to his wife, "We'll get ready to eat now. Put some water in the stone pail." "There is no use putting any water in the pail," answered his wife, "we have nothing to cook." "Well, bring the pail, anyway, and get some spoons," said Wemicus. When the water began boiling, Wemicus jumped up on the cross-poles, in vas defaecavit, all over his children and the inside of the wigwam. Then Ninicip went out. His wife scolded Wemicus, saying, "You always do something like that. You must have seen someone do that." Then Wemicus kept quiet and everything had to be cleaned up. The wife then invited Ninicip to come in again and he told her that he would fix up the meal. Igituo interum in vas defaecavit and they had good rice soup, and everyone, even Wemicus, had a good meal. The following morning Ninicip made soup for the family again and then went home. Soon Wemicus and his family were starving again and Wemicus said, "I must go and see my son-in-law, Muskrat. He lives not far away." "All right," said his wife and Wemicus set out. When he had almost reached Muskrat's home, the little Muskrat children called out, "Our grandfather is coming." Wemicus told Muskrat that he was starving and Muskrat said to his wife, "You had better make a fire in the hot sand." So the fire was made, and Muskrat went out with a big sack made out of hide and returned with the sack full of ice, which he dumped into the hot ashes. Wemicus expected that it would explode but it only cooked nicely. Wemicus wondered what it was. Soon Muskrat said, "We are ready now," and they took off the sand and there were a lot of nicely baked potatoes. Wemicus thought that was an easy way in which to live--just to get ice for potatoes.

Next morning Wemicus started out for home and left his mitten behind as he had done with Ninicip. Muskrat's wife sent a child after him and told the child, "Don't go too close to Wemicus. He's always in mischief." Everything happened as before. The child threw the mitten to Wemicus and Wemicus sent an invitation to Muskrat to come to his home the next day. As Wemicus went on his way he had some potatoes which Muskrat had given him for his family. Half way home he rested and thought he would eat the potatoes, as they looked very good. So he ate every one. "I am the one who works hard," he said to himself. "My family can wait until Muskrat comes." When he reached home he told his wife, "Muskrat is also starving. I brought nothing. Muskrat is coming tomorrow to see us." Next day Muskrat came and they put him on the opposite side of the wigwam. Wemicus said, "We have nothing much, but, wife, make a fire in the hot sand." The wife answered, "I suppose you saw somebody else do something. Don't you try any more mischief." But he made his wife make the fire. He then went out and returned with the sack full of ice, which he dumped on the fire. The sack blew up all over everybody and put out the fire. Then his wife said, "I suppose you saw someone do that again." She made another fire and Muskrat said, "Give me that bag." He went out and brought back the sack full of ice, dumped and buried it in the fire, and, after a while, they got the potatoes. All of them had a good meal. The next morning, before Muskrat left, he got them another bag of potatoes.

Wemicus does not work, although his family is so large. Well, pretty soon the whole family was starving again. Then said Wemicus, "I must go and see Meme , my son-in-law." He went into the bush and when he reached Meme's wigwam he found a large white pine in back of it. He noticed that Meme had a sharp pointed nose. He saw that Meme had not much to live on, but nevertheless Meme told his wife to get the cooking pail ready. Then Meme began climbing the pine tree, which was at the back of his wigwam, and began pecking in the trunk with his nose. Pretty soon he came down with a raccoon. When Wemicus saw this, he thought, "That is a great thing; I must try it." Meme burned off the hair and cleaned the raccoon, and shared the meat on a stick to each one. Wemicus received the best part, as he was the grandfather.

The next morning they had another raccoon to eat. Then everything happened as before. Wemicus was given a raccoon to take home. He left his mitten behind, and sent an invitation to Meme to visit him the next day. On the way home Wemicus thought to himself, "I wonder how this raccoon tastes cold." So he ate the entire raccoon. When he got home, he told his wife that Meme was starving but that he was coming to visit them the following day. They put the wigwam in order and Wemicus fixed up a big pine like that belonging to Meme and cut two pieces of wood, which he pointed and shoved into his nose to imitate Meme. When Meme came along he saw Wemicus sitting there with sticks in his nose. Wemicus told his wife, as usual, to prepare for supper, and she told him that they had nothing. When she had the water boiling in the pail, Wemicus climbed up the tree and pecked upon it in imitation of Meme. He fell down, however, and drove the sticks into his head. He fell into the fire, but after a while he gained consciousness. Then Meme stepped out of the wigwam, climbed the tree, and brought down a raccoon. And then the whole family had a good supper. Next morning Meme got another raccoon and left it for the family, and then went home.

Still Wemicus did nothing and the family was again in a starving condition. Then said Wemicus, "I have some more sons-in-law and one is close. I will go and see him; he will help me until open water. I will go and see Skunk." So he set out to visit Skunk. Wemicus was pretty hungry and Skunk was farther off than the rest of the sons-in-law, but he finally reached his home. Wemicus found Skunk's water hole and saw a great quantity of oil in it. He knew that Skunk must have killed a great deal of game. So he went into Skunk's wigwam and saw a great quantity of food. Skunk said, "We don't have much. It is long since I hunted. But come outside." There Wemicus saw a piece of ground fenced in. Skunk then produced a little birch bark horn and said, "What will you have?" Skunk now blew on his horn and all kinds of game came inside the enclosure. Skunk deinde pepedit and killed whatever kind Wemicus wanted. They then skinned what he killed and fried it for supper.

In the morning Skunk said to Wemicus, "I'll give you three shots and a horn. You can make a fence for yourself. This horn will last forever, as long as you don't lose it. If you do, it will be bad." Then Skunk gave Wemicus three shots to be used in the future, and he did this urinando super eum to load him up three times. He did not give him any food, because he would be able to get enough for himself. Then Wemicus thought, "Now I am going to do something." As Wemicus was on his way home he said to himself, "I wonder if it will go off!" So, just as he was passing a tree stump, pepedit at the stump and blew it up. "That's fine, but I have only two more shots left," said he. Later he tried the same thing and then only had one left. A little while after this he saw a big pine tree, and thought he would try a shot at this. So he blew up the pine tree, and so used up all his shots.

When he reached his wigwam, he showed his wife the horn which Skunk had given him, saying, "Skunk gave me that." Then he built a large fence of poles. He told his wife to hold the horn and stay near by, while he got a club to kill the game with. Then he blew on the horn and the fence was filled with bear, deer, and all kinds of animals. Although he had no shots left, Wemicus managed to kill one caribou, and his wife was very happy. He cut the fat from the breast of the caribou, made a fire, and got some grease from it. He then spilled the caribou grease in his water hole in order to deceive Skunk and make him believe that he had a great quantity of meat. Not long after this Skunk started out to visit Wemicus and, on his way, he passed the three stumps which Wemicus had blown up and knew that he had no more shots left. When he reached Wemicus' water hole he said, "I guess he got one any way." When he came to the wigwam, he found that Wemicus and his family had hardly any meat left, so he said to Wemicus, "Come out and let me see your fence." They went out and Wemicus blew his horn, and inside the fence it became full of game. Skunk pepedit and killed all of them, and then Wemicus and his family had plenty. Skunk stayed over night and departed the next morning.

Wemicus had another son-in-law who was a man. This man's wife, the daughter of Wemicus, had had a great many husbands, because Wemicus had put them to so many different tests that they had been all killed off except this one. He, however, had succeeded in outwitting Wemicus in every scheme that he tried on him. Wemicus and this man hunted beaver in the spring of the year by driving them all day with dogs. The man's wife warned him before they started out to hunt, saying, "Look out for my father; he might burn your moccasins in camp. That's what he did to my other husbands." That night in camp Wemicus said, "I didn't tell you the name of this lake. It is called 'burnt moccasins lake.'" When the man heard this, he thought that Wemicus was up to some sort of mischief and was going to burn his moccasins. Their moccasins were hanging up before a fire to dry and, while Wemicus was not looking, the man changed the places of Wemicus' moccasins and his own, and then went to sleep. Soon the man awoke and saw Wemicus get up and throw his own moccasins into the fire. Wemicus then said, "Say! something is burning; it is your moccasins." Then the man answered, "No, not mine, but yours." So Wemicus had no moccasins, and the ground was covered with snow. After this had happened the man slept with his moccasins on.

The next morning the man started on and left Wemicus there with no shoes. Wemicus started to work. He got a big boulder, made a fire, and placed the boulder in it until it became red hot. He then wrapped his feet with spruce boughs and pushed the boulder ahead of him in order to melt the snow. In this way he managed to walk on the boughs. Then he began to sing, "Spruce is warm, spruce is warm." When the man reached home he told his wife what had happened. "I hope Wemicus will die," she said. A little while after this, they heard Wemicus coming along singing, "Spruce is warm, spruce is warm." He came into the wigwam and, as he was the head man, they were obliged to get his meal ready.

The ice was getting bad by this time, so they stayed in camp a while. Soon Wemicus told his son-in-law, "We'd better go sliding." He then went to a hill where there were some very poisonous snakes. The man's wife warned her husband of these snakes and gave him a split stick holding a certain kind of magic tobacco, which she told him to hold in front of him so that the snakes would not hurt him. Then the two men went sliding. At the top of the hill Wemicus said, "Follow me," for he intended to pass close by the snakes' lair. So when they slid, Wemicus passed safely and the man held his stick with the tobacco in it in front of him, thus preventing the snakes from biting him. The man then told Wemicus that he enjoyed the sliding.

The following day Wemicus said to his son-in-law, "We had better go to another place." When she heard this, the wife told her husband that, as it was getting summer, Wemicus had in his head many poisonous lizards instead of lice. She said, "He will tell you to pick lice from his head and crack them in your teeth. But take low-bush cranberries and crack them instead." So the man took cranberries along with him. Wemicus took his son-in-law to a valley with a great ravine in it. He said, "I wonder if anybody can jump across this?" "Surely," said the young man, "I can." Then the young man said, "Closer," and the ravine narrowed and he jumped across easily. When Wemicus tried, the young man said "Widen," and Wemicus fell into the ravine. But it did not kill him, and when he made his way to the top again, he said, "You have beaten me." Then they went on.

They came to a place of hot sand and Wemicus said, "You must look for lice in my head." "All right father," replied the son-in-law. So Wemicus lay down and the man started to pick the lice. He took the cranberries from inside his shirt and each time he pretended to catch a louse, he cracked a cranberry and threw it on the ground, and so Wemicus got fooled a second time that day. Then they went home and Wemicus said to his son-in-law, "There are a whole lot of eggs on that rocky island where the gulls are. We will go get the eggs, come back, and have an egg supper." As Wemicus was the head man, his son-in-law had to obey him.

So they started out in their canoe and soon came to the rocky island. Wemicus stayed in the canoe and told the man to go ashore and to bring the eggs back with him and fill the canoe. When the man reached the shore, Wemicus told him to go farther back on the island, saying, "That's where the former husbands got their eggs, there are their bones." He then started the canoe off in the water by singing, without using his paddle. Then Wemicus told the gulls to eat the man, saying to them, "I give you him to eat." The gulls started to fly about the man, but the man had his paddle with him and he killed one of the gulls with it. He then took the gulls' wings and fastened them on himself, filled his shirt with eggs, and started flying over the lake by the aid of the wings.

When he reached the middle of the lake, he saw Wemicus going along and singing to himself. Wemicus, looking up, saw his son-in-law but mistook him for a gull. Then the man flew over him and defecated in his face, and Wemicus said, "Gull's excrement always smells like that when they have eaten a man." The man flew back to camp and told his wife to cook the eggs, and he told his children to play with the wings. When Wemicus reached the camp, he saw the children playing with the wings and said, "Where did you get those wings?" "From father," was the reply. "Your father? Why, the gulls ate him!" Then he went to the wigwam and there he saw the man smoking. Then Wemicus thought it very strange how the man could have gotten home, but no one told him how it had been done. Thought he, "I must try another scheme to do away with him."

One day Wemicus said to his son-in-law, "We'd better make two canoes of birch-bark, one for you and one for me. We'd better get bark." So they started off for birch-bark. They cut a tree almost through and Wemicus said to his son-in-law, "You sit on that side and I'll sit on this." He wanted the tree to fall on him and kill him. Wemicus said, "You say, 'Fall on my father-in-law,' and I'll say, 'Fall on my son-in-law', and whoever says it too slowly or makes a mistake will be the one on whom it will fall." But Wemicus made the first mistake, and the tree fell on him and crushed him. However, Wemicus was a manitu and was not hurt. They went home with the bark and made the two canoes. After they were made, Wemicus said to his son-in-law, "Well, we'll have a race in our two canoes, a sailing race." Wemicus made a big bark sail, but the man did not make any, as he was afraid of upsetting. They started the race. Wemicus went very fast and the man called after him, "Oh, you are beating me." He kept on fooling and encouraging Wemicus, until the wind upset Wemicus' canoe and that was the end of Wemicus. When the man sailed over the spot where Wemicus had upset, he saw a big pike there, into which Wemicus had been transformed when the canoe upset. This is the origin of the pike.

Ci?gibis.

At the time of which my story speaks people were camping just as we are here. In the winter time they used birch bark wigwams. All animals could then talk together. Two girls, who were very foolish, talked foolishly and were in no respect like the other girls of their tribe, made their bed out-of-doors, and slept right out under the stars. The very fact that they slept outside during the winter proves how foolish they were.

One of these girls asked the other, "With what star would you like to sleep, the white one or the red one?" The other girl answered, "I'd like to sleep with the red star." "Oh, that's all right," said the first one, "I would like to sleep with the white star. He's the younger; the red is the older." Then the two girls fell asleep. When they awoke, they found themselves in another world, the star world. There were four of them there, the two girls and the two stars who had become men. The white star was very, very old and was grey-headed, while the younger was red-headed. He was the red star. The girls stayed a long time in this star world, and the one who had chosen the white star was very sorry, for he was so old.

There was an old woman up in this world who sat over a hole in the sky, and, whenever she moved, she showed them the hole and said, "That's where you came from." They looked down through and saw their people playing down below, and then the girls grew very sorry and very homesick. One evening, near sunset, the old woman moved a little way from the hole.

The younger girl heard the noise of the mite?win down below. When it was almost daylight, the old woman sat over the hole again and the noise of mite?win stopped; it was her spirit that made the noise. She was the guardian of the mite?win.

One morning the old woman told the girls, "If you want to go down from where you came from, we will let you down, but get to work and gather roots to make a string-made rope, twisted. The two of you make coils of rope as high as your heads when you are sitting. Two coils will be enough." The girls worked for days until they had accomplished this. They made plenty of rope and tied it to a big basket. They then got into the basket and the people of the star world lowered them down. They descended right into an Eagle's nest, but the people above thought the girls were on the ground and stopped lowering them. They were obliged to stay in the nest, because they could do nothing to help themselves.

Said one, "We'll have to stay here until some one comes to get us." Bear passed by. The girls cried out, "Bear, come and get us. You are going to get married sometime. Now is your chance!" Bear thought, "They are not very good-looking women." He pretended to climb up and then said, "I can't climb up any further." And he went away, for the girls didn't suit him. Next came Lynx. The girls cried out again, "Lynx, come up and get us. You will go after women some day!" Lynx answered, "I can't, for I have no claws," and he went away. Then an ugly-looking man, Wolverine, passed and the girls spoke to him. "Hey, Wolverine, come and get us." Wolverine started to climb up, for he thought it a very fortunate thing to have these women and was very glad. When he reached them, they placed their hair ribbons in the nest. Then Wolverine agreed to take one girl at a time, so he took the first one down and went back for the next. Then Wolverine went away with his two wives and enjoyed himself greatly, as he was ugly and nobody else would have him. They went far into the woods, and then they sat down and began to talk. "Oh!" cried one of the girls, "I forgot my hair ribbons." Then Wolverine said, "I will run back for it." And he started off to get the hair ribbons. Then the girls hid and told the trees, whenever Wolverine should come back and whistle for them, to answer him by whistling. Wolverine soon returned and began to whistle for his wives, and the trees all around him whistled in answer. Wolverine, realizing that he had been tricked, gave up the search and departed very angry.

Next morning, after breakfast, he said to them, "Go! Don't stay here. You go that way and you will find a big river. There you'll find lots of people and maybe you'll get married." So the girls went on. They left Woodpecker and he is there yet. They came to the big river and beheld canoes and all kinds of people passing. First they saw White Duck . He was a good looking man, and as he passed them in his canoe, the girls said to him, "Put us in your canoe, you are going to get married sometime." White Duck answered, "My canoe is too small. Other people are coming; they will marry you." And he passed on. Next came Fish Duck , a good looking man. They cried out, "Put us in your canoe, you are going to get married anyway." "No, my canoe is too small," replied Fish Duck. A great many people passed, but all of them said that their canoes were too small, so the girls had to stay where they were. The people were passing to the mouth of the creek where the village of the chief was. At last came Black Duck . He was also nice looking. "Come over and get us; you will get married sometime," cried the girls. "No, My canoe is too small. Ci?gibis is coming soon and he will marry you." He was going to be the last person to pass. At last Ci?gibis came along.

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